Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs
Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs are Calvin's favorite breakfast cereal. He describes them as "crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside", pre-sweetened and ready-to-eat. As their name indicates, Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs have a very high sugar content, and also contain excessive amounts of caffeine. Regardless, Calvin eats several bowls each morning, with each bowl containing 1/6 of the box's cereal. Contents and Influence Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs are flavored with frosted chocolate, which Calvin claimed to provide a "rich, fudgy taste". In one strip, Calvin declared the cereal free of even a single natural ingredient. Calvin once claimed that he wouldn't eat any cereal that doesn't turn milk purple, and yet in another strip claimed the Bombs turn milk brown. A Sunday strip also showed Calvin eating brown chocolate cereal. Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs contain concentrated amounts of sugar: Hobbes compared a serving's worth of the cereal to "eating a bowl of milk duds". Calvin once claimed that the cereal featured eight different "essential vitamins", to alleviate its unhealthy image. However, in a later strip, Calvin said that there were no vitamins at all, implying that the content of the cereal was changed over time to remove (or add, if the events of the strip are not in chronological order) the vitamins. Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs also contain high amounts of caffeine: 100% of the daily allowance for a single serving. In addition, Calvin sometimes pours his cereal in chocolate milk or mixes additional sugar in his bowl. As Calvin exceeds the recommended portion per meal, the high sugar and caffeine content of his cereal makes him overstimulated and hyperactive over several hours, especially on Saturdays. He has also developed tremors as a result of the sugar in his breakfast (which he instead attributes to vitamin deficiency), and claimed to usually feel sick after his third bowl of cereal. Calvin's unhealthy cereal diet may explain a reduction of his sugar intake, mentioned as being underway in a mid-June strip from 1987. In an early March strip of the following year, Calvin also said that his mother refused to buy him the cereal's marshmallow-bits variation and that he did not always eat three bowls at a time. As Calvin's father had doubted whether his son truly did reduce his sugar consumption, this could mean that the sugar ban was at or near its most intense in the March strip. It presumably slackened somewhat in the following years, as Calvin later mentioned regular three-bowl servings and the use of chocolate milk. However, the five-bowl serving from late 1986 was never mentioned again, implying that Calvin's parents had effectively cut down on his sugar intake. Nevertheless, Calvin feels the need to scoop extra sugar on his already excessively unhealthy cereal, as stated in one Sunday strip. Hobbes has eaten Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs on a few occasions, such as to help Calvin earn a prize. The tiger expresses none of Calvin's enthusiasm for the cereal, rightly considering it as unhealthy and disgusting. The first time he tasted Calvin's cereal, Hobbes clutched at his throat, suffocated by sugar. Merchandise In order to promote the brand, Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs has released several prizes available to regular customers. Calvin has mentioned three: a battery-powered propellor beanie hat, a figure of "Buzzy the Hummingbird" (presumably the brand's mascot) and a "plastic trinket" available in ten collectible colors. The beanie hat was the subject of a 3-week story arc. In the arc, Calvin diligently ate four boxes of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, waited weeks for the hat to arrive in the mail and damaged the propeller mechanism before finally assembling the hat. However, Calvin was disappointed to find that the beanie was incapable of flight, the main reason he had sent away for it. The beanie appeared as a half-sphere with a crown border, a five-armed star on front and a powered propeller as wide as the hat. Calvin sent away for a red one, and it was also available in blue. It is unknown, however, which color was Calvin's beanie, as he theorized that the red ones might not have been in stock when he sent away for his. Calvin also once found a decoder ring toy in his cereal; however, the brand of the cereal was not shown or mentioned. As such, it may or may not have been a promotion from Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. Variations Calvin has stated that Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs are also available with marshmallow pieces, but that his mother refused to buy these for him (see far above section). This is most likely for nutritional concerns over cost, as a few months later Calvin's father mentioned his son's sugar intake being reduced. Calvin has also referred to his cereal as "Chocolate Frosted Crunchy Sugar Bombs", "Crunchy Sugar Bombs" and "Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs" (note the hyphen). These alternate names were most likely short-lived marketing decisions for the same product. Trivia *During the story arc in which Calvin has his own TV show, he advertised Sugar Bombs during a commercial break. *Once, Calvin switched to a new cereal, named Pulp 'n Stuff, after saying boring routine is a big part of life, with Hobbes stating that it has no chocolate frosting and instead fiber and raisins. After hearing this, Calvin immediately goes back to Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. Gallery chocolate.png frosted.png sugar.png bombs.png Category:Food Category:Running gags